PSP Capital Partners Pritzker Sees 'Fiscal Cliff' Deal Taking Time

Penny Pritzker, head of PSP Capital Partners and longtime supporter of President Barack Obama, said an agreement with Republicans over the looming federal debt crisis could take six to nine months.

NEW YORK -- Penny Pritzker, a U.S.
businesswoman and longtime supporter of President Barack Obama,
said an agreement with Republicans over the looming federal debt
crisis could take six to nine months and may require the
influence of ordinary Americans on legislators.

Pritzker, who was national co-chair of the president's
re-election campaign - Obama for America 2012 - said in a phone
interview on Wednesday that the president had told her his top
priority after the election was resolving the fiscal cliff
problem - a $600 billion package of federal spending cuts and
tax increases set to begin in January that could push the U.S.
into a new recession.

"I think he will look for common ground, try to find a place
where he thinks a deal can be made, and my guess is you will end
up having to take this to the American people to have their
influence on their legislators as well," said Pritzker, who also
heads private investment firm PSP Capital Partners and is an
heiress to Chicago's Pritzker family fortune.

"This is tough because you have people who have taken
intransigent positions," she said. " You have to find the middle
ground here."

Wall Street firms, corporate America and investors are
focused on what will happen in January unless Congress agrees to
cancel, alter or delay the cuts and tax increases. Such an
agreement is expected to be tied to a long-term plan to cut the
U.S. government's budget deficit.

U.S. stock prices are likely to be hurt if the economy goes
off the cliff and into a recession. On Wednesday, U.S. stocks
dropped more than 2 percent in part on concerns about such a
downturn.

The problem is expected to be the top priority of the
"lame-duck" Congress that will convene soon.

Pritzker did not expect a major breakthrough before the end
of the year.

"I don't know how this will transpire. But probably you
won't have a comprehensive, complete, fully fleshed out deal
between now and Dec. 31," she said. "No congressman I have
talked to, no senator I have talked to expects that."

"So my guess is this is a process, which could take six
months or nine months or something. I just don't know," she
said.

Pritzker's range of business and charitable interests
includes serving on the boards of Hyatt Hotels Corp and
the Pritzker Foundation as well as starting businesses such as
real estate investment firm Artemis Real Estate Partners.

She was the national finance chairman for Obama during his
2008 presidential bid but took on a smaller role in his
re-election campaign. Media reports cited the president's harsh
criticism of the rich and his policies toward businesses as part
of the reason for her pullback.

However, Pritzker said she spent election night with the
president and other Obama supporters in Chicago.

When asked if she would consider a deeper involvement in the
second Obama administration, Pritzker said she would be open to
it. In 2008, she was seen as a candidate for the commerce
secretary job but did not pursue that.

She declined to say whether she would consider that job now,
but added, "I feel as though I have played a role in the first
administration, and I will always be available to help the
second administration."

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